PHO701: The Global Image, Reflective Account

This week, I have been watching the three presentations given to us in this week’s

theme, The Global Image. I enjoyed watching these presentations and I found it

was a good way to re-introduce myself to the contextual aspect of photography,

something over the years I have slowly lost touch with, due to life events and my career. Even though I have been able to maintain a small amount of contextual knowledge, working in the creative department of a FE and HE college, this first week has been a great way to start thinking about how I contextualise my work again after completing my BA (Hons) in Photography and Media Arts 13 years ago and importantly, how I will develop this within my current practice.

I started thinking about the parallel between the spread of photography historically and the way photography is transmitted today and I can see similarities between the themes or subjects photographed. An example could be when a major news event has happened, this becomes the main source of information and due to the nature of the event, it could sometimes be urgent, 9/11 for example. The difference I believe would be that historically, even though photographs could be taken and reproduced quickly, there would naturally be a delay in the spread of the news due to the process to produce them, whereas today, an image could have been taken instantly after or possibly during the event and can now be easily shared and distributed on the internet within minutes around the world, uniting and informing instantly.

The third presentation discussing unity and change, captured my attention, as this is a subject that I find quite interesting. How a photograph or series of photographs can capture our attention in such a powerful way, that they become famous and memorable.

A couple of examples shown in the presentation ‘Execution of a Viet Cong Suspect’, Eddie Adams, 1968 and ‘Napalm Attack, Trang Bang, Vietnam’, Nick Ut, 1972 are images that I studied both at college and university. They are so powerful to me, especially then when I was younger, and I had not been exposed to images such as that. Even to this day I wondered what happened before and after these photographs were taken, now seeing the footage included in the presentation, I was in awe to see what happened and I felt more connected to the subjects. Seeing the last moments of the Viet Cong suspect’s life and his death, was quite powerful, but it brought a sense of closure to me. Similarly, seeing Kim Phuc fleeing in tears towards the camera in the photograph and watching the footage of her drinking and calm afterwards gave some sense of humanity to it, it made her real to me.

Fig 1: Eddie Adams, 'Execution of a Viet Cong Suspect’,1968

Fig 2: Nick Ut, ‘Napalm Attack, Trang Bang, Vietnam’, 1972

This idea and question I have of what happened before and after in anything I see, be it a photograph or a dead bird on the ground is something that interests me, the stories behind the photographs and objects. This is something I think I would like to explore more in some way.

One big challenge for me this week has been to get into the habit of reading again. Even though I enjoy reading, it is something that can be a struggle for me being slightly dyslexic, as I sometimes need to read texts numerous times to fully understand what I am reading. As you can imagine, this can take up time.

So far, I have started reading the chapter ‘Global Photography’ in Photography: The Key Concepts by David Bates. What has stood out for me so far, is how powerful the concept of sharing photographs online has become, this is something we are all aware of, but it is not something I consciously think about daily. Bates discusses (2019, p196) the sharing of holiday photographs, again something we have all done, to inform and share the world we

are in or have visited, which is completely different to our everyday environments.

This is something I do each summer when I visit North Devon. The landscape there is so captivating and completely different from the urban landscape of the small town I live in, that is a natural response for me to capture it in a photographic form to show to family and friends online via Facebook and Instagram. This, however, is something I have stopped doing as much each year, the reason being is the location I visit was peaceful and quiet 5 years ago and somehow over those years it has become far more popular with tourists, either from people sharing the location as I did and the Devon tourist board advertising location to holidaymakers, because of this I found myself protecting the area by not sharing the location online. I felt a responsibility as a person and photographer to protect a quiet beauty spot for locals, but also a need to share with the world it’s beauty to keep their economy going, especially in this time of economic struggles due to the COVID 19 pandemic.

This week has been full of information and I am starting to think a lot more about my own photography and where I could take it over the next two years on this course.

Bibliography

Books:

BATE, D., 2019. PHOTOGRAPHY: The Key Concepts. London. BLOOMSBURY VISUAL ARTS, pp.189 - 196.

Websites:

Eddie Adams, ‘Execution Of A Viet Cong Suspect’, 1968. [image] Available at: <http://100photos.time.com/photos/eddie-adams-saigon-execution> [Accessed 24 September 2020].

Nick Ut, ‘Napalm Attack, Trang Bang, Vietnam’, 1972. [image] Available at: <https://www.pri.org/stories/2018-02-21/how-vietnam-wars-napalm-girl-found-hope-after-tragedy> [Accessed 24 September 2020].

Images:

Fig 1: Eddie Adams, ‘Execution of a Viet Cong Suspect’, 1968

Fig 2: Nick Ut, ‘Napalm Attack, Trang Bang, Vietnam’, 1972